Would like to upgrade my video card.

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
If you have waited this long, I'd hold off a bit longer and see what these new, next-gen cards are gonna bring to the table.. I think we are looking at a June-ish launch?!
They should both be quite a bit faster and consume less power. It was rumoured yesterday that the GTX 900 series successor should launch in June.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
They should both be quite a bit faster and consume less power. It was rumoured yesterday that the GTX 900 series successor should launch in June.

Polaris still doesn't have an official release either but was confirmed to be before "back to school". I'd expect we'll start getting official release dates in May and would expect them to come out on both sides in the June to July time frame. I expect 2016 to be a crazy year of competition and new products on both sides. I'd advise anybody that has the ability to wait a few months to do so as both brands will be making big jumps in performance and efficiency, bigger than they have in several years. If I hadn't gotten my 7970 replaced for free, I wouldn't have bought a 390 as late as I did and opted to wait it out (even though it is friggin' awesome).

http://wccftech.com/amd-confirms-polaris-gpus-released-school-season-desktops-laptops/
 

mistersprinkles

Active Member
If buying new, Get a 970. You don't need 8GB of VRAM for 1080P gaming. For 1440P there are SOME games that are so texture happy that it might come in handy. If planning on going 4K with 2 cards definitely get 6-8GB.

Honesly I'd get a 970 if I were you. The drivers are so much better than AMD drivers. Runs very cool in your hot case too.
 

Carnau

New Member
Ok I bought the R9. I am us ring pci-e. Do I have to plug something into the 8 pin and the 6 pin? My old video card just had something in the 6 pin.
 

Carnau

New Member
MSI Radeon R9 390 DirectX 12 R9 390 GAMING 8G 8GB 512-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Here is what I mean about the Plugs.
IMG_3372.JPG IMG_3378.JPG
 

Carnau

New Member
Ok. With that being finished and reading everything on here. What kind of case should I go with for proper cooling? I have fans in this case though. Extra fans I should say. And why call it a cool master if it doesn't cool well. LOL
 

mistersprinkles

Active Member
Your card will be fine in even an average case. These modern cards are built with a lot of overclocking headroom. As was mentioned, populate both of the PCIE power plugs. It looks like you have an 8 and a 6 there.

Then fire up your machine and install the latest drivers from the AMD website and start having some fun with games!

That is quite a nice card you will be thrilled with it's performance for sure. And the 8GB of RAM will let you enable crazy high res textures in games that support that.

Have fun dude.
 

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
Ok. With that being finished and reading everything on here. What kind of case should I go with for proper cooling? I have fans in this case though. Extra fans I should say. And why call it a cool master if it doesn't cool well. LOL

LOL.. It's all a conspiracy!!

Yeah, you should be fine on the case, as long as you use the fans you got, good cpu cooler..etc

If you do swap cases, Corsair makes some great ones..as does NZXT..

Probably more a question of what looks nice to your tastes, and works in your personal environment. We have members here will all different brands and sizes of cases, if you want recommendations we can give you personal reviews of what we all use, I'm sure.

Great choice on that GPU man, your gonna have a blast gaming!!!!
 

Carnau

New Member
As far as budget goes. I really don't have one. If you say I should get a 500$ case I will just have to save up. If my case will be fine I love the way my case looks. But if it is sub par or I need better performance I am up for suggestions! The only requirement is it has the be 20in or less in height.
 

Intel_man

VIP Member
Well no one really needs a $500 case... but if you really want to see what $500+ case looks like, check out this link. http://www.caselabs-store.com/

As for your current case (CM 690), it's not bad... but it isn't great for today's standard. A case isn't necessarily going to provide you better performance directly, but it can indirectly provide you more options to extract heat from your CPU and GPU (your two main heat sources). Such as going from air cooled to a liquid cooling system for example.
 

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
As far as budget goes. I really don't have one. If you say I should get a 500$ case I will just have to save up. If my case will be fine I love the way my case looks. But if it is sub par or I need better performance I am up for suggestions! The only requirement is it has the be 20in or less in height.

You definitely don't need to be stepping into a $500 case..and truthfully, if your current case is working for you, and temps are good etc.. I'd save the money and make a decision down the road.

As I mentioned before Corsair and NZXT make some pretty slick cases in $100-$200 price point, and those options are both plentiful and expandable.

I use an $90 (canada $) Corsair case (230T) that I jammed all the parts in my signature into, and its been phenomenal.
 

Intel_man

VIP Member
Unless you plan on some heavy OC'ing.... don't worry about performance impacts due to ambient temps in your case.
 
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